It is becoming increasingly popular at sporting events, rallies, concerts, and other gatherings to engage in wireless communications with others, whether these others are present at the gathering or are located elsewhere. As an example, attendees may communicate with other attendees at an event with wireless/cellular telephones, Family Radio Service (FRS) radios or other walkie-talkies, or the like to exchange commentary about the event, and to ask what others are seeing from their respective vantage points. At the same time, many attendees also like to simultaneously use radios, scanners, or the like to monitor simultaneous broadcasts of the event, or to use portable music players (e.g., MP3 players, CD players, etc.) to simultaneously or periodically listen to music. As an example, at NASCAR or other racing events, members of a party will often position themselves about various portions of a track, and will communicate with each other about their observations while simultaneously using scanners to listen to pit crew conversations. While these arrangements can add excitement to an event, they can also be burdensome and inconvenient, since one must simultaneously handle multiple phones, radios, scanners, etc. (as well as the encumbrance of any associated cords/leads), and at the same time one may be carrying an event program, binoculars, food/beverages, or other matter. This often leads to frustration since one simply does not have enough “free hands” to deal with all of these items. Difficulties also arise with communications because of background noise at the event, which can be compounded owing to the use of radios, scanners, etc.
The same problems and frustrations are also often shared by participants in the events themselves. For example, coaches and event coordinators—who usually have a limited view of the overall event—often wish to communicate with others at the event, while at the same time monitoring broadcasts of the event. The need for communications is often particularly acute at events such as long-distance races, golf tournaments, fishing competitions, sailing regattas, and the like, where participants and coordinators may be widely spread out over a large area. Additionally, the participants/coordinators may be involved in activities which require their attention and the full use of their hands, leaving little opportunity to juggle two-way communicators and/or one-way communications receiver devices. The same difficulties are often shared in industry by construction workers, plant maintenance personnel, security personnel, and the like.
Some of these difficulties are alleviated with use of hands-free enhancements for the foregoing communications devices, such as headsets or ear loops which bear speakers for the user's ears, and also bear hands-free microphones (such as clip-on microphones, boom microphones that curve around to the user's mouth, etc.). However, such devices are usually only adapted to connect to a single phone, radio, scanner, music player, or other communications device, and the headsets can sometimes make it difficult to make effective use of a second or subsequent communications device. Additionally, the headsets can be cumbersome, uncomfortable, and/or difficult to use in situations where the user might need to wear a hat, helmet, or other gear for sun or impact protection or for other purposes.
It would therefore be useful to have available some device which allows a user to make effective use of multiple communications devices (such as phones, radios, scanners, music players, etc.), while minimizing the entanglements of multiple cords or other leads, and while allowing a greater degree of hands-free use of the devices.